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| The Battle of Varna |
The charge for a new crusade against the Ottomans
at the Council of Florence was led by Janaki Torzello, who traveled throughout
Europe with the message that if a Christian fleet could block the Bosphorous
Straits, the Ottomans would not be able to send reinforcements from Anatolia
and no more than 80,000 men would be needed to drive the Turks from Europe and
regain the Holy Land. After the council, Murat demanded and received from the
Emperor assurances that Byzantium would never join any such effort. At the same
time, however, the Emperor encouraged a new attack by Ibrahim of Karaman, from
the Karamanoğulları (Karamanid Dynasty), forcing Sultan Murat II to leave
Rumeli just when he was needed to counter the effects of the Hungarian Regent
Hunyadi's victories in Europe. Murat was able to successfully drive Ibrahim
back. Hunyadi had suddenly risen as the great Hungarian national hero as a
result of his victories in Europe in 1442. His fame spread throughout Europe
and the Europeans believed that they had found the leader who could, at long
last, lead a successful Crusade against the Ottomans in Anatolia and the Middle
East. Stimulated by the Pope, groups of Crusaders were organized in all the
major countries of Europe. Joined by a Serbian force led by Đurađ Branković of
Serbia and a Hungarian army under King Ladislaus the Posthumous, Hunyadi
organized the Crusade at Ofen and then marched down the Morava, confident that
with the Sultan absent in Anatolia, the Ottomans could offer little resistance.
Hunyadi captured Niş and most of the rest of southern Serbia, stimulating
Scanderbeg and the Albanians to extend their resistance. The Crusaders then
went over the Balkan Mountains into Bulgaria, taking Sofia and hoping to cross
the mountains and reach the lowlands along the Maritsa river before winter
closed in.
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| A portrait depicting King Wladyslaw's death after the battle of Varna |
Sultan Murat returned rapidly from Anatolia at the
news of the Crusader advance. His army in Rumeli was already dispersed. All
Murat had with him was a force of his new Kapikulu infantry, and a small unit
of Janissary corps, which had returned with him from Karaman. Not being able to
match the Crusaders in numbers, he decided to try to stop them by holding one
of the key Balkan passes, the Kapulu Derbendi (Trayan gate), through which the
enemy would have to pass to reach the lowlands. The Crusaders were victorious
in their initial attack, but the approach of winter finally caused Hunyadi to
abandon the expedition after slaughtering thousands of Muslim prisoners and to
return to Hungary for the winter.
The Ottomans were in a critical situation. Now that
they scented the possibility of victory, thousands more Crusaders flooded into
Hungary and a new campaign was prepared. In Anatolia, the Karamanoğulları
responded to the news by attacking once again, and while the Albanian revolt
spread, the Byzantine despot Constantine of Morea moved back into central
Greece and occupied Athens and Thebes. In Edirne, the Ottoman capital at the
time, two years of warfare without the arrival of new booty left the Ottoman
treasury drained to the point where salaries could not be paid. Additionally,
the Sultan`s son, Alauddin had died, leaving the Sultan in a vulnerable state.
A ten year peace was struck with the Europeans as well as with the
Karamanoğulları, and having achieved security and stability for the Ottoman
Empire, Sultan Murat passed the throne to his son, Şehzade Mehmed, who would
later become Fatih Sultan Mehmed, while Sultan Murat retired to Bursa, where he
intended to pursue a life of peace and tranquility.
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| Sultan Murad II |
Murat`s retirement and Mehmet`s accession,
however, unleashed new forces that threatened the Ottoman state, the primary
concern being that the Pope absolved Christian signatories of the Peace of
Edirne treaty from their obligations to the Ottomans on the grounds that
oaths taken with infidels were not binding to them, and additional armies
started to build up in the hopes of a future attack against the Ottomans. A
large new Crusade army, with soldiers coming from all over Europe, was mobilized
at Buda under the leadership of King Ladislaus. Branković refused to provide
Serbian support, and secretly notified Sultan Mehmed of the new Crusade in
the hope of being allowed to retain his possessions even if the Ottomans won.
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| A map showing the movements of the respective armies |
The Crusader army left Szeged in Hungary on
September 1, 1444, and were joined at Orsova on the Danube by Hunyadi with a
force of knights from Transylvania, and then marched west along the Danube
toward Varna. Due to the severity of the threat, Sultan Mehmed, who was twelve
years old at the time, requested Sultan Murat to return to the throne to lead
the resistance. Mehmed famously wrote to his father: "If you are the
Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to
come and lead my armies." It was upon this letter that Murad II led the
Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna in 1444. The Crusader forces finally
came together near Varna on November 10th 1944, and the Hungarian cavalry
initially broke the Ottoman lines, but the Sultan was able to rally his forces
quickly. The Janissaries killed King Ladislaus, which quickly opened a path to
an Ottoman victory. Hunyadi escaped with great difficulty, while thousands of
his knights were killed in the process. European hopes for a Crusade victory
were shattered. The fate of Byzantium was sealed. Ottoman prestige throughout
the Muslim world was immensely enhanced, and once again Ottoman rule of
South-eastern Europe was assured.
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